So I made a gallery of all my DIY cabling (1 Viewer)

[David K.]

My photobucket DIY cable gallery

tell me what you think?

Im also an art major, so I like tweaking the photographs, composition and lighting.

not to mention, all the cables I make have to look aesthetically pleasing

its almost an art for me now, except I work with different tech flex and braid types

enjoy the eye candy

 

[Ryan Leemhuis]

I like the speaker wire....black braid might have been better on that though as you don't want that to stand out

 

[David K.]

I do have a black braid version its my current center channel cable, I also have carbon fiber for the surrounds

 

[David K.]

black braid added to gallery

 

[Jason Dalton]

Very nice...the cables as well as the pictures.

 

[David K.]

finished the second cable, im gonna do a quick photograph session in a few moments

 

[Jordan_Brulotte]

Wow those cables look great! Do you have a thread on how you made them? I was interested in making my own interconnects as decent quality cables can be expensive. How was your cost/performance ratio on these?

 

[David K.]

the plugs in those pics were ebay cardas clones,

I just placed an order from wellbourne labs for 12 silver cardas plugs and will recable my entire sacd set up.

I purchased some shielded teflon silver plated copper wire from ebay, its military/aerospace type wire, but was in a two lead configuration and surrounded my metal braid shield and wrapped in teflon tape.

So I was using that.

the plugs at welbournelabs are on sale and come out to a little over $5 a plug, which is a great deal for a cardas plug.

I used 1/4" clear flexing, 1/4" black flexing and 1/4" chrome flexing. for the pic above, for the new sacd cables I will use snake skin type flexing.

if you have solder experience, you just solder the ground to the barrel of the plug and signal to the center pin.

though Cardas RCA connectors are very difficult to terminate for anyone who has never soldered an RCA connector before. Cardas connectors are for experienced terminators.

I may get around to making a tutorial one day, but I need to find the time and energy. head-fi forums has a great sticky tutorial in their diy section you can check out.

but ya cost?

4 x slvr cardas plugs = $24 (on sale right now so cheaper)

teflon shielded wire = roughly 40 cents a foot? 40 cents x 6 feet = $2.40

techflex
6 feet of clear flexing roughly = $3
6 feet of black flexing roughly = $3
6 feet of chrome flexing roughly= $6

silver solder and dual wall heatshrink = 50 cents?

you can make rca interconnects like these for under $40, these are the same type of cabling you see sold close to $150-170 from boutique vendors.

if you want to be on the cheap use, cheapo plugs from parts express. $10 for 4. and make costs go even lower

 

[Jordan_Brulotte]

Sounds great! I'll check it out. Your Camera/lighting skills really adds to the sexiness .

 

[David K.]

These are not finished yet, I just plugged the connectors to the end of the cables, have yet to solder, im waiting for avcable to send me my custom heatshrink





22 awg silver plated copper, teflon insulated x 4, Litz braid configuration, sleeved with white flex then a second layer ofclear flex for a misty cloudy look, the second flex really helps hold the geometry, and if look closely in the light you can see the vague traces of the litz braid. very classy looking cable

 

[Jordan_Brulotte]

David, I read the guide you directed me to. I couldn't find any reference to using these interconnects with a self powered sub. I have yet to start my surrounds but my sub is finished and that would be the first DIY IC I'd like to try. Do you know if the Canare quad star cable IC's will be suitable for my application?

 

[David K.]

sub cables require a coaxial cable, I would assume a 75 ohm coax should be fine.

the star quad is a microphone cable, though I do believe they would work also with a sub.

if you get a coaxial cable, you just strip it, unbraid a part of the shield solder it to the ground and the signal lead to the center pin of the plug.

I dont know why a coaxial cable is needed, but thats what I keep reading.

I just used an rca cable with my subs.

go to markertek.com

they have everything you need.